Senator says bill would shut down 'chicken boxing'

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A New Orleans senator described his bill as closing loopholes in Louisiana's cockfighting ban. An Opelousas senator said it would shut down the sport of "chicken boxing."

The criticism stunned Sen. J.P. Morrell, who was proposing the bill. Chicken boxing?

Sen. Elbert Guillory, who represents an area that fought to keep cockfighting legal, described chicken boxing as a legitimate sport that uses some paraphernalia involved in cockfighting.

Morrell says what Guillory described — two chickens fighting each other — already is banned under the 2008 anti-cockfighting law.

The two men will carry the fight into the full Senate, after a judiciary committee voted 4-2 to advance Morrell's bill. The measure would broaden the definition of chicken under the cockfighting ban and criminalize the possession of items associated with fighting chickens.